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largely and lately dilated upon it. We again therefore take up a pile of publications, as they thickly cluster around us, as an apology for our remarks; and will notice and give extracts from them, interweaving annexing such reflections as the subject may suggest.

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In classing the first publication on our catalogue, the Charge of the Bishop of Winchester, among these books and pamphlets, we ought to apologize, as we did to his Lordship's Right Reverend brother last month, for passing by the mass of interesting and important statement of a diocesan and general character, in order to fix attention upon one particular topic. But that topic is so important, and his Lordship's remarks upon it are so able, scriptural, and seasonable, that we feel it our duty to extract so largely from this part of his Lordship's Charge, and the notes appended to it, that we must unwillingly leave the other portions to the widely extended perusal which we doubt not awaits them. Suffice it to say, that upon the momentous subjects of national education; the training of teachers of a highly improved character and more elevated attainments; the building and endowing of churches,

wherever they are needed to meet the increasing population of the land; as well as upon the matter of church-rates, and other important questions, the Charge and its addenda are replete with valuable and encouraging, as well as monitory, information. The address and notes are full of business; large principles are enounced, accompanied by local details and deductions, and the devout and impressive spirit of the whole may be gathered from the opening remarks, which we shall quote as specially seasonable for consideration at a closing and a commencing year.

"My Reverend Brethren, -The progress of years has again brought us to that season when, by the providence of God, I am permitted to meet you, now for the fourth time, in our periodical assembly. And when we thus come together face to face, and each recognizes his fellow-labourers in this portion of our common Lord's vineyard, we are forcibly reminded, if I mistake not, as well by those on whom we look, as by the remembrance of those on whom we look no longer, of the ceaseless lapse of time of the mutability of men, as well as of things of the door for ever closed on those who have passed away -of the rapidly lessening vista of life for those who remain.

"It may be that, while I am speaking, the full tide of recollection is pouring into the hearts of some who hear me, and the chequered page of their own pastoral history is unfolding itself visibly to their mind's eye; and as they review the years that are gone, there flit before them the reminiscences of early aspirations to be enrolled amidst the saintly band-the sanguine steps with which they passed the first threshold of the ministry-their later discoveries that the regions of real life are very unlike the representation of poetry and romance

that when their young men go out into the field at eventide, it is not that they may meditate, as Isaac did-or that while their shepherds are keeping watch over their flocks by night, no glory of the Lord is shining round about them, and no thoughts of Bethlehem, or of the thing which came to pass there, are occupying their minds. Reflections such as these may be turned to profitable account, if the retrospect is effective to make us more earnest in redeeming

the time, more sensible of its fleeting character, more diligent in working while yet it is day, more accurate in bringing things present and transient to the true test, the relation in which they

stand to things future and eternal; and, above all, more full of prayer for a larger manifestation of the divine blessing; like watchmen upon the walls, "which never hold their peace day nor night; that 'give the Lord no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth."

The Bishop has successfully blended the hortatory with the animating portions of his Charge. If he urges his clergy to renewed and enlarged exertions, he is not slack in admitting that many of them already labour diligently after their power, and some perhaps almost beyond their power, or in shewing them that he is well acquainted with the many difficulties, trials, and discouragements which they have to encounter. But he sets forth many cheerful topics; he shows what has been already done in his own diocese in various particulars, more especially in church building; so that upon the whole a soothing and a grateful impression is left upon the mind, instead of the torpor of blank despondency. We will quote in passing, as an illustration of our remark, the summary of the statistics of church-building in his Lordship's diocese.

"I turn, however, to a subject on which our prospects are brighter the increase of church-accommodation throughout the diocese. Nothing has yet occurred to check the impulse given by the formation of the Diocesan Church-building Society. The Committee have proceeded steadily in their work, stimulating by their grants a far more considerable local outlay, and aiding in the provision of additional sittings annually, of which from one half to two-thirds are free. The Society was established in March, 1837: since which period it has expend in aid of funds for building, rebuilding, and enlarging churches and chapels, the sum of £15,700, whereby it has encouraged an additional outlay from other sources

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of £70,122. The fruit of this outlay has been an increase of church-accommodation to the extent of 19,315 additional sittings, of which number 11,350 are free and unappropriated. population of the parishes which have thus received assistance, amounts in the aggregate to about 140,000, according to the census of 1831, and their churches contained 35,959 sittings, of which only 8,068 were unappropriated. Since the year 1828, eighty-three churches have been consecrated, of which fifty-six are additional; seventeen more are now in progress, and six are rebuilding. And thus it has come to pass that many wild spots have been gladdened by the sound of the churchgoing bell; many yet wilder hearts have been tamed by the blessing of God upon the ordinances of the church; many have been spared the temptation luntary dissent; and not a few who had swelling the ranks of an almost invo

gone out from us, have been brought back rejoicing within the pastures of our own fold. Glad tidings these, after a day of rebuke and blasphemy! -a call to thank God and take courage !-a motive for renewed energy and self-devotion, and self-denial, on the part of the servants of the Lord to arise and build!"

We now turn to an afflicting subject, upon which his Lordship has felt it his duty to express himself explicitly and faithfully, as in the sight of God, and before his Church. We think it best to

quote the whole passage in unbroken continuity.

"It will doubtless happen that, whilst we thus defend the outworks of our Zion, and vindicate her endowments, and maintain the privileges with which she has been invested, not, be it remembered, for the benefit of the clergy, or of any separate class, but for the general good of the community, we shall be taunted with the vulgar cry of a kingdom of this world, and stigmatized as members of nothing better than a law-church. Interested motives may be imputed. The purity and simplicity of the Gospel may be denied to us. Be it so; provided only that within the citadel are true-hearted men, imbued with the spirit of a sound mind, 'strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might,' and able to give a reason of the hope that is in them. Be it so; so long as the trumpet from our battlements gives no uncertain sound, and the watchmen on our towers hear the word at the Lord's

mouth, and warn the people from him. It is the Church's praise that her beauty and her strength are internal and spiritual. The king's daughter is all glorious within.' Rob her of this majesty, sully her white vestments, divest her of her inward adorning, the robe of righteousness and salvation, and you defraud her of her power and grace, her fine gold is tarnished, her crown is humbled in the dust, and she stands before her enemies resourceless and dishonoured.

"Are we then, as a church, in risk of incurring any such danger? Is our glory in any jeopardy? Is there heard, as it were, something of a confused sound of voices at a distance, which might make some Eli, sitting in the gate, to tremble for the ark of God? If there be in the horizon so much as the earliest rising of a little cloud, you have a right to expect from one in the position which the duty of my office bids me discharge this day, the explicit declaration of my fears. And you will give me your candid attention a little longer, while I attempt, in honest jealousy for what I deem the truth, to point out some of the grounds of my apprehension.

"There is reason, as it seems to me, for fearing injury to the distinctive principles of our church, if a cloud be raised again around that great doctrine, which involves the mode in which we are 'accounted righteous before God;' if it be even called in question whether 'the Protestant doctrine of justification' be a fundamental of faith;' if, instead of the satisfaction of Christ, singly and alone, as the ground of acceptance, a certain inherent meetness of sanctification be so connected with the qualification ab extra, as to confound the operation within, with the work of Christ without. Let him to whom universal consent has assigned the praise of judicious, pronounce his opinion. This maze the Church of Rome doth cause her followers to tread, when they ask her the way of justification.'

"There is ground, I think, for fear, if a system of reserve in communicating religious knowledge be introduced, and we are taught to treat salvation by grace as 'a great secret,' to be kept out of the sight of the ungodly for fear of an indelicate exposure of religion,' and that 'to require from both grown persons and children an explicit declaration of a belief in the atonement, and the full assurance of its power, appears equally untenable.' Is this conclusion drawn from the analogy of our blessed Lord's own teaching? We, I trust, have not so learned Christ. We remember how, in the very earliest days of his ministry, he did not hesitate to bring forward

some of the highest doctrines. At the first passover, he assumed a right over his Father's house by cleansing the temple-a declaration of the Divine prerogative of the strongest kind. His discourse with Nicodemus is based upon the doctrine of regeneration-the deepest theological truth. His conversation with the woman of Samaria revealed that God is a spirit-the most abstract metaphysical truth. In declaring to the people of Nazareth that to none of the widows in Israel was Elias sent, 'save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow,' he taught the doctrine of election, the most mysterious of the Divine purposes. We remember how, some months before his crucifixion, he intimates the sacrifice itself and its object: 'Destroy this temple;' 'The Son of man must be lifted up;' 'The bread that I give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.' And it was his last care, immediately before the ascension, to enter with the eleven into the full explanation of his expiatory sacrifice, referring to his former discourses, and interpreting their meaning, that the apostles, and after them in turn their successors, might be competent expounders of this important doctrine.

"Neither have we so learned the practice of the apostles. It was not by throwing a veil over the cross of Christ that St. Paul shewed his reverence for that high and holy mystery. I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.' 'I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.' He takes the Galatians to witness, that Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth before their eyes, crucified among them. So far is he from shrinking from the theme, as too sacred and awful for speech, that he glories in giving it explicit prominence, even in the midst of those who could not receive the truth. We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and

unto the Greeks foolishness.'

"Neither have we so learned the requirements of our church, which expects that out of the mouths of the very babes and sucklings God will perfect praise. The earliest Christian lesson which she bids us teach our children is, that God

the Son hath redeemed us.'

"Neither have we so learned in the school of experience. The whole history of the Church, in every age, tends to prove the utter inefficiency of a a min ministry which is not faithful in honouring the Saviour by a full exhibition of his grace and love, in pointing to the light which beams from the cross, and in proclaim

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"There is ground again for fear, if we are in peril of losing sight of the opinion of Bishop Hall, that the chief ground of all the errors of the Church of Rome is the over-valuing of tradition; or of the cautious warning of Bishop Jewell, that we may in no wise believe the churches themselves, unless they say such things as are agreeable to the Scriptures; - if we derogate from the exclusive supremacy of the Word, as containing all things necessary to salvation, by a phraseology which in effect gives a co-ordinate authority to the interpretation of antiquity, instead of making the Church, with our article, 'a witness and a keeper of holy writ;'-or if, finally, instead of taking Holy Scripture, with Bishop Tayor, as a full and sufficient rule to Christians because there is no other,' we distinguish 'two instruments of Christian teaching, Holy Scripture and the Church;' and after adjusting their respective offices, so as to establish, not an exclusive, but a combined or joint rule of faith, conclude that in the sense in which the phrase is commonly understood at this day, Scripture, it is plain, is not, on Anglican principles, the rule of faith. What is this but to imply, in spirit, if not in terms, a double revelation ?

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"There is ground again for fear, if, on the one hand, it becomes habitual among us to extenuate and speak in soft language of the deep corruptions of the Church of Rome, dwelling upon her ' high gifts and strong claims on our admiration, reverence, love, and gratitude;' attributing to her, of all other religious communions, the exclusive possession of that something, to which the age is moving; and characterizing simply as an 'event in providence' that Papal supremacy, of which Bishop

lor writes

Taylor

will not be neces

sary to declare the sentence of the Church of England and Ireland, because it is notorious to all the world; and is expressly opposed against this Romish doctrine, by laws, articles, confessions, homilies, the oath of allegiance and supremacy, the book of Christian institution, and many excellent writings;' and if, on the other hand, in the same

breath, we accustom ourselves to speak slightingly and disparagingly of those great and venerable names of the sixteenth century, of whom one of the ablest and wisest of modern authorities has said, that we shall search in vain, either in ancient or modern history, for examples of men more justly entitled to the praise of splendid talents, sound learning, and genuine nuine piety ;' or if we learn to designate the blessed Reformation itself as that great schism' which 'shattered' the sacramentum unitatis, since which era truth has not dwelt simply and securely in any visible tabernacle; '_or if we undervalue our own liturgy and formularies and homilies; - or put interpretations on our articles at variance with what has been generally received as the intentions of their compilers, and inconsistent with the royal declaration, that no man.... shall put his own sense or comment to be the meaning.'

"And, lastly, I cannot but fear the consequences for the character, the efficiency, and the very truth of our church, if a system of teaching should become extensively popular, which dwells upon the external and ritual parts of religious service, whilst it loses sight of their inner meaning and spiritual life; which defaces the brightest glory of the church, by forgetting the continual presence of her Lord, seeming in effect to depose him from his rightful pre-eminence; - which speaks of the sacraments, not as seals and pledges, but as instruments of salvation in a justificatory and causal sense ; not as eminent means of grace, inasmuch as 'faith is confirmed and grace increased' in them, as our article speaks; not as that they be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather certain sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace,' as our article speaks again; - but as if they were the only sources of Divine grace, to the exclusion of any other; - the means; -the keys of the kingdom; - deprecating, as superstitious, an 'apprehension of resting in them,' and investing them with saving intrinsic efficacy, not distinguishable by ordinary understanding, from the opus operatum; -which tends to substitute, at least in unholy minds, for the worship in spirit and in truth, the observance of days and months and times and years;'-for the cheerful obedience of filial love, an aspect of hesitation, and trouble, and doubt; - for the freedom of the Gospel, a spirit of bondage; -for the ways of pleasantnes, and the peace which passeth all understanding, the valley of Baca and a body of death; -which works out salvation, indeed,

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with fear and trembling, but without any foretaste of the rest that remaineth for the people of God, and without joy in believing.

" Such, my reverend brethren, is the view which I submit to you, not in a spirit of dogmatism, not as desiring to have dominion over your faith, not as lording it over God's heritage, but with an anxious and paramount desire for the prevalency of truth. I speak as unto wise men; judge ye what I say."

This rapid enumeration of unscriptural statements is a wellcondensed syllabus of the chief errors-and worse-contained in the Tracts for the Times, and cognate publications; and his Lordship gives references in the foot-page notes to passages con

ing to keep "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

But powerful and conclusive as are the remarks in the Charge upon Tractarian errors, they are less so (if conclusiveness admit of degrees) than the illustrative passages in the Appendix from the writings of their supporters. Many of these have been quoted elsewhere; (though his Lordship has taken his extracts from the original publications ;) but others are novel; for alas! after all that has been culled there are ample gleanings as deleterious as the first-fruits; and perhaps more so, as many of the quiet, insidious passages, taken in their connec

taining the exceptionable position, are more dangerous than the

tions. This digest must have cost considerable pains in searching out and condensing the opinions against which his lordship feels it his duty solemnly to warn his clergy; and it presents in few words a formidable bill of indictment, containing numerous specified accusations, all of them proved by the published statements of the parties. Not, of course, that his Lordship, in addressing his clergy, uses the forensic terms which we have just employed: but in milder and therefore better words, he shews the fearful risks, dangers, causes of apprehension, which present

themselves to his mind in connection with the efforts made to inculcate these unscriptural and anti-Anglican notions. From the retrospect his Lordship deduces two practical obligations; the first, that of earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints, ever remembering that "this is the talisman of the Christian ministry," and that "God will not bless an adulterated Gospel;" the second, which he

does not deem inconsistent with it, that of sedulously endeavour

startling conversational and epistolary dicta of Froude, and others of the bolder "conspirators "-as Froude himself called them. We will give a sample of the Bishop's collections, with his Lordship's brief interjected remarks and counter quotations. Our extracts shall be ample; but is there not a cause? We will not forget to include a few of the notable declarations in Mr. Williams's tracts, as being very important to be re-perused at the present moment, when his friends are seeking to inoculate the ingenuous youth of Oxford with their doctrine, through the pleasant medium of poesy.

"Hooker shews us, as in an instance, that a divine cannot make the Protestant doctrine of justification a fundamental of faith, without involving himself in an accusation of those, who together form an authority greater than even the greatest individual teachers.' - Lectures on Justification, by Rev. J. H. Newman. Appendix, p. 453.

"It is a distinct question altogether, whether with the presence of God the Holy Ghost we can obey unto justification; and while the received doctrine

in all ages of the Church has been, that through the largeness and peculiarity of the gift of grace we can, it is the dis

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